With the unrest/revolution (depending on your viewpoint) currently occurring in Egypt a number of airlines (but far from all) have ceased commercial flights.  Some governments are arranging charter flights for their citizens (and in some cases also for citizens of friendly countries).  In all cases, information is a little difficult to obtain but as best I can tell (from various sources), the following have already arranged some charter flights over upcoming days:

• Australia
• Azerbaijan
• Bahrain
• Belgium
• Canada
• China
• Greece
• India
• Iraq
• Israel
• Japan
• Kuwait
• Qatar
• South Korea
• Thailand
• Turkey
• USA
• Yemen

This list is probably incomplete as the situation is highly changeable.

If you are a visitor to Egypt and wanting to leave, best to first try to contact your embassy, secondly your government through people in your home country, and failing that enquire at the airport.

A number of the evacuation flights are to nearby countries such as Cyprus and Greece.  Accommodation in Larnaca and Athens may be tighter than normal for the next few days.

There are a lot of things you can plan or allow for in travel to make things go as smooth as possible, but controlling the weather isn’t one of them.  In the past 3 weeks I’ve been extraordinarily fortunate to have near misses (by a few hours) with 3 tropical storms, each one of which had potential to cause significant inconvenience to my travel.

There are some steps you can take to reduce the risks – such as limiting travel in hurricane-prone areas in hurricane season, or have as few connections as possible in the US northeast and midwest during mid-winter.  However, some risks are unavoidable and all you can do is actively monitor the situation to make early changes to your travel plans, if it proves necessary.  I usually monitor a combination of national weather services, airport and airline websites and flightstats.

Some airlines are increasing their fuel surcharges.  Here are the latest increases announced (but note some airlines such as British Airways increased their fuel surcharges in December).

• Air Berlin on January 20 – by €3 to €5 per flight
• Biman Bangladesh on January 17 - by $85 for Europe, by $55 for Middle East and Far East, by $5 for South East Asia
• Cathay Pacific on January 31 – by 9% to 11%
• Jet Airways on January 1 – by up to $4
• Kingfisher on January 1 – by up to $4
• Lufthansa on January 25 – by €2 to €26 per flight
• Singapore Airlines on January 27 – by $3 to $27 per flight (they also increased on December 2)

Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department has approved increases in fuel surcharge for flights to & from Hong Kong by up to 11%.

I’m in the process of writing up a trip report on Flyer Talk which includes a flight where I was the only passenger in first class.  It is an odd experience flying solo in first which I’ve written about before.  Thinking about it, I’ve had rather a lot of longhaul and mediumhaul flights as solo first class passenger over the years.

Emirates – Seychelles

Singapore – Auckland, Bangkok, Melbourne, Tokyo

Thai – Auckland, Sydney

Turkish - Bangkok 

On some of the above routes I was the only passenger in first class more than once.  There are plenty of other flights where I’ve been one of two first class passengers.  I suspect the type of fares and awards I book mean I have a greater than average chance of being solo first class passenger.  At least I hope so, otherwise first class is at risk of being dropped by more airlines in future.

What have been your great flights?

When you fly a lot you get to know how much time you need for connections at various airports.  My recent experiences at Sydney terminal 1 (international) suggest I need to recalibrate the “safe” transfer time, by increasing it.

In the past few weeks I’ve had aircraft use a gate on the opposite pier to the usual one – Oneworld flights arriving at the non-Oneworld pier and non-Oneworld flights arriving at the Oneworld pier.  If connecting to a different aircraft, or if wanting to use the lounge (eg for a shower) the 10-15 minutes walk between piers can make a tight connection into a very rushed one.  Indeed it is now common to see aircraft on the opposite pier from “usual” at Sydney international terminal.

I’ve also had flights arrive at a remote stand, which adds a good 20 minutes to the transfer time by the time you wait for a bus, get bussed to the terminal and then walk to international transfers or immigration.

Others who’ve cleared immigration at Sydney on an early morning arrival have commented to me how much longer immigration is taking, even if you have access to the automated Smartgate system.

Sometimes I get blase and push the boundary of reasonableness in my transits, and this is a reminder to myself not to take assumed knowledge as infallible.  The world changes all the time, and the travel world changes rapidly too.

My efforts to rebook some hotel stays in 2010 paid off with my first night in 2011 achieving Platinum requalification.  Their Crack the Case promotion together with the fact that all points count for elite status requalification gave me an idea.  As per my usual practice I had some refundable stays booked, and had already requalified for Platinum status for 2011.  I shifted a few 2010 stays from paid to awards (later getting a lucky break with pointsbreaks becoming available and switching out again to those) to ensure I completed the promotion in 2011 rather than 2010.

The result is the first 1-night stay in 2011 has given Platinum requalification from only 800-odd base points.

I’ve had some flights were I’ve been the only person in a (premium) cabin, including some memorable ones with Singapore Airlines.  But I can’t recall a flight on a widebody aircraft in the past few years where the total number of passengers was less than 40 (on an aircraft that seats about 250).  When a flight is this empty service can be fantastic, or crew can take the opportunity for an easy flight (with mediocre service).  I’m glad this most recent “empty” flight had fantastic service.

It has been a while since my last inaugural flight and so I’m being tempted by a few inaugural flights which are coming up in my neck of the woods.

They are a lot of fun, but oh so frivolous.

A recent post on travel enjoyment at the Freakonomics blog commented on some research on whether the act of travel is as enjoyable as the destination.  Their findings were that most people enjoy the act of travelling as enjoyable as being at the destination (perhaps they didn’t ask people  stranded by snow in the US northeast or Europe?).  This makes sense to me.

They then inferred that there is a limit to how much we enjoy the process of travel, because “few respondents reported that they travel without an ultimate destination in mind”.

I think for many people that may be true, however there are many people at Flyer Talk and some other travel communities where this is definitely not true (and nor is it for me).

What do you think? Is getting there half the fun?

One of my pet peeves while flying is when cabin crew turn up the heat too high after a meal.  If someone is too cold they can add clothes or a blanket, but if you are too hot you can’t really strip down.  Some airlines are worse than others at this, in my experience, and British Airways fairly consistently has cabin temperatures in mid 20s C (high 70s F), which in my view is too much to be comfortable.

It seems I’m not alone in this complaint – see the current thread on hot BA cabin temperatures on Flyer Talk.